Upgrade aging i7 990x??

[Norton]

If you need to do any work with your PC that needs 12 or more threads and you can take advantage of a tax situation then go for it! Early reports from owners of the X99 platform on this forum seem to be positive (see posts on the "Your PC ATM" thread for example)

A 990X chip is no dog even today, far from it in fact, it's still a great chip! The issue is with the availability of X58 motherboards. If your board fails you may have a hard time replacing it and if you manage to find a good one, the prices are often higher than that of the latest platforms.

My $0.02 FWIW

*On a side note- a 990X setup overclocked and running Linux would make an excellent cruncher! [/end sales pitch]

 

[ExtremeGamer]

Good Luck on whatever decision you make!

 

[Outback Bronze]

Ok guys,

I went silly and went to town on a 5960x, Gigabyte X99 Gaming G1 Wi Fi, M.2 480GB Crucial SSD and 16GB of Corsair DDRR4 2800.

System runs great atm. Idling at avg. 27 degrees. Its quite warm here today as well.

Just running @ stock atm until I read more into overclocking this thing. Sooo many voltage options n shit in the bios for overclocking. Its crazy.

Thanks for all your input guys!

Got some stock benchmarks here for anybody interested.

 

[Jstn7477]

Congrats on the upgrade, I should have a 5820K, Gigabyte X99-UD5 WiFi and G.Skill 4x4GB DDR3-2800 in my hands on Tuesday (my dad needs to replace one of his PCs so I am giving him my 4770K/Z87 board/16GB DDR3 for the board/CPU and I bought the RAM). This will be my first Intel hexacore CPU, and I'm rather jealous of that 5960X.

 

[eidairaman1]

There ya go bro. You should have atleast 2-4 cpu gens to put in there and plenty of room for ram and gpu upgrades. I honestly dont think youll need to oc it.

 

[Outback Bronze]

There ya go bro. You should have atleast 2-4 cpu gens to put in there and plenty of room for ram and gpu upgrades. I honestly dont think youll need to oc it.

Yeah mate things are going pretty good so far. It seems to be a very good platform.

Nah I don't need to overclock it at all. Id say ill just stretch its legs one day when I get bored.

Thanks pal.

 

[eidairaman1]

Yeah look at my specs. Its not complete but when im done ill be happy with it myself. I told frag maniac to jump to 2011-3. give him your testimony aswell.

 

[GhostRyder]

Ok guys,

I went silly and went to town on a 5960x, Gigabyte X99 Gaming G1 Wi Fi, M.2 480GB Crucial SSD and 16GB of Corsair DDRR4 2800.

System runs great atm. Idling at avg. 27 degrees. Its quite warm here today as well.

Just running @ stock atm until I read more into overclocking this thing. Sooo many voltage options n shit in the bios for overclocking. Its crazy.

Thanks for all your input guys!

Got some stock benchmarks here for anybody interested.

View attachment 59275

View attachment 59276

Very nice, hope you enjoy it! I know I love my new 5930K and it is staying for a minimum 3+ years. I actually depending on where things go might even keep it up to 5 and just swap GPU's every other year.

 

[Aquinus]

I'm more interested in how your benchmark scores changed going from the 990X to the 5960X. I want to see how much you actually gained by doing this upgrade because as many mentioned earlier, the 990X is no slouch.

 

[Ferrum Master]

I'm more interested in how your benchmark scores changed going from the 990X to the 5960X. I want to see how much you actually gained by doing this upgrade because as many mentioned earlier, the 990X is no slouch.

Same here.

 

[Outback Bronze]

I'm more interested in how your benchmark scores changed going from the 990X to the 5960X. I want to see how much you actually gained by doing this upgrade because as many mentioned earlier, the 990X is no slouch.

Sure.

 

[Aquinus]

I was thinking more of the same 3DMark version used for comparison. Such as Firestrike from both or 3DMark 11 for both, but not one from each. You're comparing apples and oranges and doesn't really help us at all as the two are scored differently based on different scenes. It's not a good gauge, or really a gauge at all really.

Edit: I see. Nevermind. There were images earlier that are what I want.

I think it's worth noting that none of your frame rates for the graphics portion of the benchmark are different. All of your score increases comes from the Physics and combined physics and graphics frame rates.

 

[Outback Bronze]

I was thinking more of the same 3DMark version used for comparison. Such as Firestrike from both or 3DMark 11 for both, but not one from each. You're comparing apples and oranges and doesn't really help us at all as the two are scored differently based on different scenes. It's not a good gauge, or really a gauge at all really.

Edit: I see. Nevermind. There were images earlier that are what I want.



I think it's worth noting that none of your frame rates for the graphics portion of the benchmark are different. All of your score increases comes from the Physics and combined physics and graphics frame rates.

Yeah that's true mate but im completely happy with the system. Graphics scores or not.

 

[GhostRyder]

Yeah that's true mate but im completely happy with the system. Graphics scores or not.

Might I ask how far you have/are planning to overclock? I would like to see some more people's overclocks with the 5960X since its been one heck of an interesting chip.

 

[Aquinus]

Yeah that's true mate but im completely happy with the system. Graphics scores or not.

The real question is if games perform better. Benchmarks are great if you like staring at numbers. In reality most games aren't strictly graphics but on the other hand most games couldn't utilize a full 12 or 16 threads.

 

[Outback Bronze]

Might I ask how far you have/are planning to overclock? I would like to see some more people's overclocks with the 5960X since its been one heck of an interesting chip.

Mate im not sure, ive more been trying to fiddle with the memory speeds. Its being a bit tricky atm.

When I set xmp to 2800 it overclocks the bus automatically to 105 and it cant handle it and crashes.

When I manually set the host clock to 100 while xmp is set to 2800 it will take the memory down to 2666.

Im able to get 2750 with host clock of 125 but not 2800 or 3000mhz on the memory at this point.

Like I said its been a bit tricky. Maybe its the board. Not sure. Still gota play with it a little while just to get used to it and see how it likes to operate.

 

[GhostRyder]

Mate im not sure, ive more been trying to fiddle with the memory speeds. Its being a bit tricky atm.

When I set xmp to 2800 it overclocks the bus automatically to 105 and it cant handle it and crashes.

When I manually set the host clock to 100 while xmp is set to 2800 it will take the memory down to 2666.

Im able to get 2750 with host clock of 125 but not 2800 or 3000mhz on the memory at this point.

Like I said its been a bit tricky. Maybe its the board. Not sure. Still gota play with it a little while just to get used to it and see how it likes to operate.

Might wanna also make sure latest bios on that area because I had heard issues on the gigabyte boards with higher memory speeds. For me I am runing 2666 and it set with no sweat or problems using manual or the XMP profile.

 

[Outback Bronze]

Might wanna also make sure latest bios on that area because I had heard issues on the gigabyte boards with higher memory speeds. For me I am run 2666 and it set with no sweat or problems using manual or the XMP profile.

Yeah mate updating the bios was one of the first things I did.

 

[GhostRyder]

Yeah mate updating the bios was one of the first things I did.

Did you try force setting all areas including voltage manually?

 

[Oxijex]

Hey old post i know... but i was reading through and still find it amusing that people were recommending the budget i7 system even though it only has 20 pcie lanes so with 2 cards they will only run at 8x which when running 2 cards will generally result in frame skipping etc as the cards are throttled from bottle necks. I am looking at upgrading now as my 990x has hissy fits when i try to crossfire 2x 390x's as its allready running them as 8x pcie 2...

Anyhoo im contemplating going to a 2011 and a 5930K so that i can run my two 390x's .

I believe that the 290x uses crossfire bridges where as the 390x does not which is why it is best to have them on full x16 lanes.... with 2 of these cards running it still leaves me 8 lanes..

 

[R-T-B]

Slightly offtopic: A little bit ago, the 990x's were selling for absurd amounts on ebay... (like $600 as early as last year). Might be worth looking to see if that's still true, could help give you some money in addition to your business claim.

EDIT: Oh wow, this THREAD is from EARLIER than last year!

Hey old post i know... but i was reading through and still find it amusing that people were recommending the budget i7 system even though it only has 20 pcie lanes so with 2 cards they will only run at 8x which when running 2 cards will generally result in frame skipping etc as the cards are throttled from bottle necks. I am looking at upgrading now as my 990x has hissy fits when i try to crossfire 2x 390x's as its allready running them as 8x pcie 2...

Anyhoo im contemplating going to a 2011 and a 5930K so that i can run my two 390x's .

I believe that the 290x uses crossfire bridges where as the 390x does not which is why it is best to have them on full x16 lanes.... with 2 of these cards running it still leaves me 8 lanes..

Wow, where to start.

First off, PCIe 3 x8 has no bottleneck. Like none. Look at @W1zzard's performance review. Second, X58 (which you aparently have) should be running at equivalent PCIe 2.0 x16/x16 which is equal to PCIe 3 x8/x8 and ALSO should have no performance penalty. I am also pretty sure 390X also uses crossfire bridges. I don't know where this is coming from but it's completely off.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GTX_980_PCI-Express_Scaling/

EDIT: Ok, it appears the 390X does not need a bridge. Still, this is very unlikely to be the cause for any performance issues.

 

[GreiverBlade]

I believe that the 290x uses crossfire bridges where as the 390x does not which is why it is best to have them on full x16 lanes.... with 2 of these cards running it still leaves me 8 lanes..

wrong and wrong ... since hawaii 1st iteration (290/290X) AMD got rid of the CFX bridge and X8/X8 3.0 would not even be a bottleneck for them as of today, where did you read that
"which is why it is best to have them on full x16 lanes" because no reference about it can be found anywhere (and i searched thoroughly )

it's even the opposite from what you say : no bridge = less ... ah whatever, just look at the description of the "DMA Link" from the 290X slide presentation

even my 6600K setup would be fine with a 390X cfx
unless you go trifire then ...

altho ... nice necro, nonetheless

oh i've found that ...

"Especially with standards like PCI-E Gen 3.0 there's plenty of bandwidth there, but even at Gen 2.0, it really is not an issue. For the R290 cards setup in Crossfire, PCIE Gen 3.0 is recommended. What if you do not have PCIE 3.0 compatibility ? Well, the bus will revert to Gen 2.0 which will probably not make more then a marginal difference as it is really hard to flood even
two x8 Gen 2.0 ports."

ok it was true in 2013 but it's also true transposed to today and x8/x8 3.0

 

[Oxijex]

I have no evidence of what pcie3 x8 would be like as it would probably be fine as it is equivilent to pcie 2.0 x16... but on my currentx58 motherboard pcie 2.0 limits pcie 3.0 cards to 8x. Put it this way... I get better fps with 2x6970s in crossfire in battlefield than i do with 2x390xs bottle necked to 8x pcie 2.0 but then with one card that is still bottle necked to 8x because it isnt trying to sync with the other card using those lanes im still bottle necked but not as much.

When they are discussing no losses with the bridge gone keep in mind that they are assuming you would have pcie 3 not pcie 2...

I have run my cards in a mates x99 setup and the cards run perfectly.

Ive got
Gigabyte X58 oc
990x@4.58ghz
12 gig ram
Corsair 1200hx i power sup

And i would keep running it and not upgrade if i could get a new mobo with pcie 3...

 

[GreiverBlade]

I have no evidence of what pcie3 x8 would be like as it would probably be fine as it is equivilent to pcie 2.0 x16... but on my currentx58 motherboard pcie 2.0 limits pcie 3.0 cards to 8x. Put it this way... I get better fps with 2x6970s in crossfire in battlefield than i do with 2x390xs bottle necked to 8x pcie 2.0 but then with one card that is still bottle necked to 8x because it isnt trying to sync with the other card using those lanes im still bottle necked but not as much.

When they are discussing no losses with the bridge gone keep in mind that they are assuming you would have pcie 3 not pcie 2...

I have run my cards in a mates x99 setup and the cards run perfectly.

Ive got
Gigabyte X58 oc
990x@4.58ghz
12 gig ram
Corsair 1200hx i power sup

And i would keep running it and not upgrade if i could get a new mobo with pcie 3...

well i was assuming you would/could go with a Z97/Z107 motherboard who support PCIeX 3.0, as R-T-B wrote you can also expect to get a good amount of money out of it if you sell it right ... people still go insane for 990X and X58 setup, i saw a 990X at 650chfs where i live ... and i talk about the CPU only xD and for that price you could get a good Z107 mobo and a i7-6700K, and just have to add ~ 150$ for a set of 16gb DDR4 (i.e.: 2800 C14 like mine are 128$ for me ) and recycle the PSU/HDD/case if needed

 

[Oxijex]

My m

well i was assuming you would/could go with a Z97/Z107 motherboard who support PCIeX 3.0, as R-T-B wrote you can also expect to get a good amount of money out of it if you sell it right ... people still go insane for 990X and X58 setup, i saw a 990X at 650chfs where i live ... and i talk about the CPU only xD and for that price you could get a good Z107 mobo and a i7-6700K, and just have to add ~ 150$ for a set of 16gb DDR4 (i.e.: 2800 C14 like mine are 128$ for me ) and recycle the PSU/HDD/case if needed

Thee only thing that is making me hesitate with a z107 is the maximum of 20 pcie lanes... i do believe in a year or two we will be requiring the full bandwidth of pcie 3.0 16x... so then the 20 lanes won't cut it for a 2 card setup. Ive had my 990x for a long time now and its a bit dissapointing that the new cpu isnt going to offer much performance boost. As im not going to get the hex core... it is also the other reason i wouldnt get a z107 as im not going from a six core to a four core... definately get an x99 and probably wait for the broadwell E to come out. Thanks for suggesting selling the 990x... i might keep it for a number cruncher